Hope for the World

Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke with Guillaume d'Alancon, translated by Michael J Miller, 123 pages

"Humility and confidence" are the two attributes Cardinal Burke claims are vital to a bishop's ministry, and in this book-length interview he exhibits plenty of both.  The caricature of him as an overly formal, legalistic prig is upended by his history as the son of farmers who at the age of eight watched his father die of an extended illness, whose devotional life is centered on the Eucharist and the Sacred Heart, who describes St Therese of Lisieux's Story of a Soul as his "source book for the spiritual life", and who began his study of canon law under orders from his bishop and against his own inclination.  This personal humility does not, however, diminish his confidence in the truth he has received and has been commissioned to proclaim.

In this book-length interview with French journalist Guillaume d'Alancon the cardinal touches upon many problems facing the Church and the world, from the culture of death to the reverent celebration of the liturgy.  Burke is neither a mystic nor a profound theologian, but his singularly guileless manner combines with an unerring consistency and devotion to the Church to form a peculiarly convincing whole.